A Journey among the Stars
by andjudar
Summary: It was supposed to be a peaceful mission but a strange accident throws the crew of the USS Endeavor into a different time. Can they find out what happened and why it happened? Can they ever go back to their own time? PLEASE R&R! NEW CHAPTER
1. Prologue

A Journey among the Stars

Notes: This story was originally formed as an RPG with various writers. But it turned out to be so good that I decided to collect the posts and turn them into a story. Thanks go to: John, Cyn and Darrin.

~ PRELUDE ~

It was supposed to be a peaceful mission, an exploration and mending of relationships damaged between the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Cardassian Union and the Romulan Star Empire. The year was 2369 and was filled with new discoveries like the Bajoran Wormhole but also with political intrigue, espionage, negotiations, tension and conflict.

Captain John Murdock and his crew, 60 crewmen and 15 officers, on board the Avenger Class Starship Endeavor were on their way to their latest expedition, far away from home. Many of the Chief Officers had not arrived yet and Murdock was a little concerned. They were going fast and Starfleet command had been clear about the importance of this mission, to patrol the alpha quadrant to make sure that the Borg would not come back.

He sat in his chair, looked across the bridge and went over the staff records. His Executive Officer, Commander Kristen Hunter, the Chief Science and Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Commander Kuros, the Chief Engineer Christopher Pine and Major James Costa, the Security and Tactial Officer were already on board. It was a strange combination, Hunter and Costa, both human, were married. Pine and Summer Williams, the not-here-yet ship's counselor had been a couple until 2349 when a deep familiar crisis over the death of their child had torn them apart. Murdock wasn't sure how those relationships would influence the flow of the work here on the Endeavor. Yet, all had excellent service records and recommendations. He would just have to wait and see, and trust his instincts.


	2. Arriving Part 1

**~ Arriving ~**

Lt. Summer Williams stepped from the beaming platform and had to suppress a shudder. She had a strong dislike for beaming, especially trans-warp beaming, yet she knew how important it was. She would have never made it in time. So, she had gotten beamed from a shuttle to the USS Endeavor which travelled at warp speed. Feeling a little topsy-turvy, she greeted the posted officer, registered for duty and received her first orders and indications of how to get to her room and office. The ship was not very big but she had always had the ability to get lost.

During the shuttle flights, she had made herself familiar with the crew, and even though she was late, there were still some positions unassigned. That was normal, as far as she was concerned. From what she could read, everybody in the crew was capable and concerning the latest medical and psychological check-ups they were doing just fine. She would still have to schedule individual meetings with the Chiefs of each station, to get to know them and to establish trust. After all, she would be the ship's counselor, a trust person and morale officer, a member of the so called Omega Team, a bunch of specialists chosen very carefully for this mission. The automated doors slid open and she entered her new office.

It was not unusual for her to not go first to her quarters. For her, the office was as important as the quarters with her personal belongings because she knew that she would spend a lot of her time here. The first thing she did was have a nice cup of tea, green tea with pomegranate flavor. The smell alone made her feel comfortable. While she took a sip, she already started decorating in her mind. With the cup half empty, she finished the new design of the practice.

Once she had settled in, she started out on a tour throughout the different departments of the USS Endeavour. First, she started in Sickbay, because she and the medical staff would work together very closely. There was no Chief Medical Officer yet due to a delay in transportation from Space Station Castro but the crew – three nurses - was working dutifully towards the beginning of the mission. In case of a medical emergency there would be immediate response.

Then she ventured to the Science department and ended with a short visit of Engineering. The other stations and departments would be functioning mainly from the bridge, as far as she knew.

In Engineering she noticed that the Chief Engineer was not present, but the rest of the crew was busily working. Some seemed pretty young but just from watching them, they appeared competent and sure about what they were doing. One though, an Ensign - telling from the insignia pips on his uniform - caught her eye, and not in a very positive one. He was a tall and handsome man, dark haired with intense blue-grayish eyes and a strong attitude. It was not that this normally would bother her, but his behavior around the others made her take a mental note to cite and have him come over to her office first thing in the morning tomorrow.

She remembered the soft humming of the engines and it made her sigh, bringing back memories from a past long lost. Quickly, she turned around and left the engineering department, hurrying to get back to her office. Over another cup of tea - this time black tea with lemon - she sent the citation for a counselor's date to Ensign Jonathan Myers to see her at 0900 tomorrow morning.

There was one last thing she had to do on her first day on board, she had to schedule a meeting with the captain, John Murdock. It was standard procedure, for her as well as for the commanding officer. Summer would be responsible for the mental wellbeing of the crew and she wanted him and the rest of the commanding staff to be able to fully trust in her.

The captain was willing to meet her right away. She gave him her first evaluation based on reviewing the medical files of each officer. But she reassured him that she would get an insight on each and every one of them on a personal level and report any negative results back to him. She was content with how the meeting went, Murdock, being an El Aurian, was a reasonable and intuitive person, quiet and compassionate, a person able to give trust to his crew. He was quiet, determined and seemed a bit reclusive. Summer also concluded him being stern, decisive and very matter of fact in his ways and judging from her experience, those characters were often considered rude or uncaring, even though she was sure that he was not like this. He seemed to be a person who was willing to accept the opinions of his crew, a trait that Summer appreciated much. All in all, she wrapped it up, he was a compassionate leader who ruled with a no tolerance demeanor.

Passing through the bridge to get to the Captain's ready room, she also made the acquaintance with he First Officer Commander Kristen Hunter and the Chief Science and Intelligence Officer Kuros, who was an intriguing character. He was a human, yet he had been raised by Vulcans on their homeworld and after an accident in the Kahs-Wan ritual in the Vulcan Forge, parts of his brain and auditory system had to be replaced by cybernetic units. Williams had heard some Ensigns refer to him as a walking and talking supercomputer due to virtually unlimited storage possibilities of his positronic brain.

Straightening out her uniform, she took the turbolift and for the first time here on the USS Endeavor, she went to search her quarters.


	3. Arriving Part 2

It was as expected, medium sized quarters with a panoramic view of the dark universe and its glowing stars and planets. She would make some changes in the furniture to make it more comfortable but all in all, she felt that she could make this place home for a couple of years. The last time she had felt like that had been on board of the USS Ganymede, in 2355, more than 14 years ago.

She had enjoyed her time on the Ganymede more than on the Neptune, where she had served for five years since 2350, one as counselor's aide and four years as chief counselor after the former chief counselor's retirement. The USS Neptune was a small Miranda type vessel with only a handful of cases for her to deal with, and the missions were calm and interesting but on board of the USS Ganymede, an Excelsior class star ship, under the command of Captain Martin Hargreaves, she finally could live up to every expectation she had ever had for herself.

This ship had been her home for many years and it had been a good home! Captain Hargreaves, who now had so effectively recommended her for special duty here on the Endeavor, had become a very good and close friend over the years, and after a while more than a friend. Martin had saved her countless times on away missions as well as she had saved him, in a different way. She had been his strength in times of doubt as well as given him balance. After the sad events during and after StarFleet Academy, she had finally had found the strength to continue a normal life.

Martin was a terrific captain, caring for his ship and crew but sometimes he could be a pain in the ass, having no patience whatsoever. He got fed up with alien species because of the language barrier and used to tap his foot impatiently until the science officer adjusted the language program to the specific dialect. He lost temper when things didn't go his way immediately. In general, he was always very short of patience and mostly, the crew had to bear with it. Summer with her goodhearted nature and a constant smile on her face was a welcomed balance, for his temper and the well-being of the crew.

But sometimes life comes in the way and things get complicated. Martin and Summer had tried for years to keep things professionally, but sometimes, things are just destined to be. And when one heart yearns for another, the only intelligent thing to do is let nature take its course. Summer had served for a couple of years on board of the USS Ganymede but it was only two years before her mysterious disappearance that she really realized what was going on. Both of them had been flirty, but not very forward so things remained calm with the occasional dinner in the mess hall or captain's quarters, one spent-together shore leave and countless away missions and dangerous undertakings. It was a close and trusting captain-counselor relationship with its ups and downs, yet they both trusted each other blindly. Summer did not question his decisions and Martin didn't doubt her intuition and evaluations.

Summer couldn't recall the day things changed and she found it more comforting not to dig in her memory. Things had been good the way they were. When things finally changed, it made them both uncomfortable for a while but after that, they just enjoyed each other's company and made the best out of the time given, but never let their relationship influence their work or the ship's hierarchy. After the initial months of getting to know the new situation, things turned out perfectly for both of them…until that fateful day when when those great and exciting years of service were met with a sudden end. There was not much she remembered of the whole situation. She was in a session with a young Lieutenant with sleeping problems when the red alert sounded. Quickly, she made her way to the bridge and got there in the middle of the heaviest turbulence caused by impact shocks of phasers and torpedos. When she reached the bridge, chaos was ruling, people laid injured or dead on the floor and Captain Hargreaves ushered everybody into the rescue pods. This had been the last time Summer saw the USS Ganymede, the crew and the captain until 5 years later, when she mysteriously reappeared in the StarFleet headquarters, soaking wet, wearing the same clothes as on the day of her disappearing, not able to remember a single thing of what had happened to her during these 5 years, only the final glance of Martin back on the bridge of the USS Ganymede.

Doctors and Vulcans – as always very interested in cases like that – checked her inside and out, used her as research material and put her under a microscope of why and how this incident came about but none of this shed any light on the mystery. At least, none of what made it out of the research center. There was talk of hypothetical time travel because she hadn't aged a day in those five years of absence, but it was just talk. Yet, Summer had the feeling that the Vulcans didn't share much of their findings.

Summer took a year off. She wanted to relax and not think of StarFleet for a time, but she got bored pretty fast. Yet, she was clear about not going on active missions when she finally returned to StarFleet, so she was given a teaching position at the Academy and she loved it. She felt like a student herself again, watching all those aspiring young cadets going through the basic general courses and those who seriously wanted to be counselors. She enjoyed sharing her experiences with the hopeful students.

Then, on the 21st of May, 2369, a call came in from Headquarters, offering her a position as chief counselor on the USS Endeavor, as part of the special Omega operation. It had been Martin Hargreaves who had recommended her for this position.

It had been the first time she had heard from him then. Summer remembered that Martin had always said that her well-being and career were just as important to him as his own, and since he knew that Summer was always eager, always exploring, always wanting to know more, he mentioned only one name when he had been asked by the Admiral.

Martin was sure that Summer – even after those tragic and not really comprehensible events – was destined to continue with missions and boldly going where no one had gone before. She was an explorer by heart and mind, set on what her expectations were and mostly not willing to concede. Brianna was very aware of this and she knew that it probably wasn't the best way of dealing with things but it was who she was and it had made her into the person she was now, the person Captain Martin loved...and let go for the greater good, as he called it.

And in the end, it hadn't taken her long to decide…


	4. Arriving Part 3

It was a quiet night and after the initial thoughts and worries and the usual try at restoring the lost memories, she rested well. She had requested Engineering Ensign Jonathan Myers at 0900 hours and wanted to review his service record before the meeting. She had a feeling that she would find interesting facts in there and she was proven right. There were a couple of entries made by his senior officers on his behavior, mostly on being big-mouthed and overly confident, one made just recently the CEO. But she also found two major incidents, one from academy times, a violent fallout with his supervisor, and the other one from his first assignment, only 1 year ago, a miscalculation and resulting overcharge of a power conduit and then blaming it on someone else. This was definitely something to talk about with the Ensign.

Counsellor's Log. First session Ensign Jonathan Myers, Engineering Department. 0900 hours

I requested for Ensign Myers to report to the counsellor's office for evaluation. Upon arriving his already described overly conscious and confident behavior, I asked him if this behavior was normal for him and if he had experienced any negative reactions because of that. He denied having received negative feedback for his way of acting around others and showed full confidence. I suggested taking a look at his service record on board this ship because in earlier revision I found several entries on his behavior. Ensign Myers had a – for him – reasonable explanation for every single one of these entries. He seemed to feel very comfortable and began to talk about his life before signing up for this ship. From his recount I collected quite important facts, as to familiar rejections upon joining Star Fleet or the accident of a higher ranked crew member on another ship before the assignment on the USS Endeavor.

I suggested self-controlling measures to him, which he reluctantly accepted. A new meeting has been scheduled for 1600 hours in 1 weeks' time. I find it necessary to go more into detail of his personal problems in order to get to the solution for the current problem. I don't consider him a threat to the Engineering Department but further evaluation is necessary to ensure a smooth operation.

The meeting took over two hours. Ensign Myers was a very talkative fellow. When he was finally gone, she sent the report and ordered herself a nice cup of hot green tea with jasmine leaves to help her focus. The incidents of last night came up again.

Maybe it was time to try something a little more aggressive. She called up a file on the computer – coded by voice – and leant back. It was a hypno-regression therapy based on principles of past-life-regression and the treatment of the defensive reaction to some unaccepted impulses that were repressed by trauma. It was quite a violent and invasive method but everything else had failed. Summer laid back in the wide and comfortable chair and ordered the program to start.


	5. When Hell broke lose Part 1

**~ When hell broke loose ~**

When the captain's call came in, Summer was still awake. Yet, she didn't mind the distraction at that late – or better very early hour, she had been busy. Busy trying to remember. Still she tried every single existing method to make her brain remember the incidents that had taken place after abandoning the USS Ganymede. But once again -just like the other times she tried - she stumbled across blacked out information and all she could gather in the end was nothing more than a blurring recount of the last moments of her being aboard the ship, entering the bridge and seeing the captain. There was more, she felt it, she just couldn't wrap her mind around this something, and she was sure that it was something horrible. But even though, she didn't fear those memories coming back, she had been through worse.

Silently, she made her way to the Ward Room. She had been only 5 days on board of the USS Endeavor and yet, there had been some quite interesting characters in her office. She already had quite a few counseling sessions, from missing family or even animals to overachievers and troubled sleepers. She was sure, it was not going to be a boring mission.

On the way she met up with the acting Chief Medical Officer Trevor Daniels and the Chief of Science, Kuros, who seemed to be quite concerned about something, maybe something connected with why the captain wanted to see them straight away. When they entered, Murdock greeted them shortly, then returned to some data he had on a PADD before him. Summer watched the people in the small room carefully, and noticed that the Chief Engineer was still missing. She had not reviewed the crew manifest again since her initial check-up and she was pretty worried that one of the senior and definitely most important officers was not the first to arrive.

Then the doors opened again and she saw Murdock look up from his PADD. "Ahh, let's start now that everybody has arrived."

Summer turned around and nearly choked. The Chief Engineer was none less than Christopher Pine. Their eyes met briefly, and she went cold for a moment but saw the same reaction from him.

Williams and Pine had been a couple back at StarFleet Academy and inseparable for quite a while. They had met during her first month – Pine was already studying for a year.

Summer had wanted to be a teacher for English literature before but at University one of the professors of the psychology department noticed her ability to focus on gestures of people and interpret the slightest changes in skin color, breathing, facial and body expressions as well as tone of voice, and convinced her to work more on that special talent. In the end, when she had two Ph.D.'s in psychology and psychiatry, she decided to follow her grandmother's footsteps and join StarFleet academy to become a counselor.

Christopher instead had always known what he would do with his life. Machines were his obsession and becoming Chief Engineer on a Starship his dream. They were entirely different yet moved in together pretty fast. They finished the Academy together, Summer was able to conclude her psychology studies after only 3 years, being 4 months pregnant. In 2349, Pine accepted his first assignment on board of the USS Pavillion as Ensign in the Engineering Department on an Earth-near mission with many visits back to Earth so that he could be close to Summer who decided to stay home with the baby growing inside her. But this distance drove them apart, with each mission Christopher and Summer felt that there was less and less love between them and reasonable as they both were, they decided not to stay together just for the sake of the baby.

Then the baby – a healthy little girl named Savannah – was born and when she was only 6 months old, Summer accepted her first assignment in position as counselor's aide on board of the USS Neptune where after one year she was promoted to Chief counselor after the retirement of Lt. Commander Adam Pearson, who after 27 years of service decided to turn towards teaching instead of practicing. Summer gladly accepted this new challenge as it took her mind off her personal problems.

But then, during a shore-leave back on Earth, which Summer and Chris decided to take together for the sake of Savannah, destiny drove them even farther apart. Chris had come around to pick both Summer and Savannah up to take them to Fantasyland, a smaller version of an adventure park, and they were driving down the interstate, when an out-of-control vehicle crashed into them and pushed them into the oncoming traffic.

In the aftermath of the accident, Savannah had died due to her severe injuries and both Summer and Chris fell into a bottomless pit of despair and hopelessness. They comforted each other for a couple of months but soon, they couldn't stand the sight of each other, silently blaming each other for what had happened even though they knew that it had been nobody's fault. It had been an accident, something that nobody could have foreseen or anticipated, less circumvented. But it had driven them so far apart that they couldn't bear with each other anymore.

Chris was the first to leave – a thing that Summer thought heartless and vain. He returned to the USS Astoria and went on about the new mission as if nothing had ever happened. At least that was what he pretended. He turned into a quite grumpy fellow, quiet and reclusive. The other crewmembers, especially the engineering staff respected him but never really got to know him for he kept to himself most of the time.

Summer also returned to her ship, the USS Neptune. Being a psychologist, she used the techniques on herself to get over this horrible incident. Day after day she worked on herself and after a few sessions she obtained the lost control over herself again. For four more years, she served on board this small ship until she was transferred to the USS Ganymede, due to staff shortage on the bigger ship that was on its way to a deep space mission near the Neutral Zone.

The memories of that tragic day and her little daughter were something Summer would have been glad to have been able to forget but they kept coming back like unwanted guests every now and then.

And now she stood face to face with the man she had tried to forget for almost 20 years. And judging by the look on his face, he was going through the same shock as she was.


	6. When Hell broke lose Part 2

When CEO Christopher Pine stepped into the ward room he caught a whiff of a fragrance that he had not smelled in at least 2 decades but when he realized who it came from, he nearly lost his coolness. How...What...Why? How was it possible? Why was she here? He had known that she - just like him - had gotten assigned to star ships after the incident that so totally had changed his life, after...well, that was a different story. There was no time to get into this, nor was he in the mood.

Summer had to focus hard on the captains words: ""Thank you all for coming. We have discovered a disturbance in space unlike anything I've ever encountered before. Frankly, it gives me a very strange feeling."

That now peaked her interest and she scolded herself for letting the presence of Chris get to her like that.

Murdock continued: "I've ordered an intercept course. Based on my calculations we should be coming upon the disturbance within 10 minutes. I'd like you all to be..."

Pine heard the captain and listened intently. Intercept course, that normally meant extra engine speed and maximum energy for shields and deflectors. And while his thoughts already trailed off to what else he could get out of this Defiant Class, the room started to turn upsidedown. He dug his fingers into the door frame but lost his grip after a few seconds and crashed into the closed door.

Hell had broken loose. To Summer it felt as if the space ship had hit a huge concrete wall, she was tossed across the whole room, crashing into people and chairs, trying frantically to get a hold of something. It went up and down, left and right and shook them so hard that the walls bent and cracked and sparks exploded up from the monitors and wall conduits. Then, everything went black...

... She felt lightheaded and free, surrounded by light but as soon as she tried to open her eyes, all came back. She was lying on her back, tossed across the main table which probably had broken because of her falling onto it. Looking up, she could see into the next deck and unfortunately, also spotted the torn body of one of the crewmen who had been working there.

Pine had lost consciousness only for a few moments, and woke up when the ship had just stopped moving. Even though he was shocked by the crash, the thought of this fine space craft destroyed hurt his very soul. His head hurt as well.

He looked around and searched for injured crewmembers, for one in particular. Summer. Soon he found her in the dust and debris that was all around, lying in a pile of broken plastic that once had been the mission table. In a second, he was by her side, putting a hand onto her forehead. Her eyes were open but not focusing. She tried to move her extremities carefully but couldn't, the pain was excruciating but somehow familiar and that frightened her even more. From the corner of her eyes she saw someone, the commander as far as she could tell, start to move around. Then she felt a sweaty hand on her forehead. Moving her eyes - she couldn't move her head - she looked into big blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" she heard the familiar voice. She narrowed her eyes and growled low and with the help of two strong arms she finally sat up.

When she now tried to speak, her voice came uneven and hoarse. "What the hell happened?" she inquired weakly. "And why are you here?"

"I think we crashed..." That was all he could muster. He didn't answer her second question, though. "Come on, we'd better get the rest of the crew, your services will be needed now." This once again gained him a growl and an odd look from her but right now, there was no time to dig up old feuds.

Pine pried open the door and nearly fell into a huge hole that now connected the two decks and managed to climb down into the engineering department in order to get an overview. The first thing he noticed was the intact but offline warp core. Thank god for that, he thought. A reactor detonation would be the last thing he needed now. But as far as he could tell, all conduits and cooling engines had been destroyed, so the matter inside the core would not be reusable. It also meant that everything was extremely unstable. He called out to his crew but only got 3 people to answer him, Assistant Chief Engineer Jonathan Myers, Propulsion Specialist Joshua Lane and Crewman Kevin Anderton, the other 3 members of his staff had been killed in the crash. They only discovered two, one must have been tossed outside during the crash landing.

After having found only 28 crewmembers in all alive, the full extent of the crash got visible. There were many injuries but no explanation whatsoever to what had happened. They had crash-landed out of nothing. Summer's whole body felt numb and she moved almost robotlike but got the job done. She knew exactly what needed to be done, nursing the injured and helping the confused. Her body responded to what her head told her but she felt almost as if not being connected to this body of hers. There was something so familiar about this that it gave her the creeps.

Pine had been ordered by the captain to salvage whatever they could from the ship and also find materials to set up a shelter for the surviving members of the USS Endeavor. Quickly, he helped Lane and Anderton, who were unharmed, to carry Myers outside. It seemed as if he had been hit by debris, he had a nasty head wound. Then he returned with the two of them to get energy packs, rations and medical supplies, together with the rest of the surviving crew.

He hurried the others to go along faster, he knew that the structure of the damaged ship wouldn't hold much longer. Once outside, they set up camp.

Murdock now split up the surviving team members, he took off with Pine and Lt. Commander Costa to find out where they were and if there was any way of getting help. Williams and Daniels, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer were set to continue to help the wounded and get an overview about the remaining supplies.  
>But soon after, they had just started to get organized, Commander Hunter shouted the order to leave everything and follow her quickly.<p> 


	7. Discoveries

**~ Discoveries ~**

Always checking the readings on his sensor pad, Pine had discovered a hidden energy source about 4 kilometers away from the crash site and soon, they were on their way. The energy source was intriguing, the tracing signature strange but yet familiar and the captain seemed eager to find out what it was. Murdock led them over a hill and the sight that presented itself was more than astonishing.

It was a space ship - a Defiant Class from the looks of it, unbelievably similar to the recently crashed USS Endeavor, lying peacefully in the clearing in front of them. She was intact – obviously this ship had not crashed but had been landed carefully. But there was something strange about it. His fingertips started to itch by the thought of the possibility of being able to get his hands on the machinery in there. What struck him ever so odd was the fact that even though the ship was down like a sitting duck, it had definitely not crashed like the USS Endeavor but it seemed to be without power and deserted. The desolate surroundings only made this odd impression more intense and eerie.

Murdock made a call to Hunter to come with Lt. Williams and join them.

"Aye Captain, we're on the way..." Summer heard Hunter say and within seconds the whole group was moving. She had helped Daniels to fix up the injured, putting band-aids and gel-pads on cuts and bruises. There had not been enough time to salvage Sickbay in order to get all the important equipment, they only had been able to get the emergency packs that were on dispense on every deck. But for the moment being, this was enough. There were anti-inflammatories and anti-biotics, a bit of hypo-spray, a handful of medical tricorders with Ultra Sound capability for deep tissue or internal injuries and a protoplaser among the more general things like bandages and first aid kits.

Her body ached from the crash, and her knees were still wobbly. But then the call of Hunter came to accompany her to the position of the away team, strength returned. Maybe there was a way out? Maybe they found other people who might help them?

The camp group was moving forth quite quickly but they had to watch their every step. There was debris from their crash and many stones but soon, they found the others. Summer saw Murdock, Hunter, Costa and Pine standing and looking up at a huge ... object ... ship ... an updated version of the Endeavor, or so it seemed. Summer raised an eyebrow and moved closer towards the group. She could read the tension of each of their faces, only the captain and Christopher Pine were - despite the horrible tragedy - somewhat thrilled to have made this discovery.

It had not been a long hike to where the away team was but Summer still had to catch her breath at the site of the unfamiliar ship lying in the sun, obviously abandoned. She shared a quick glance with Christopher Pine but then stood next to the captain.

Major Costa stated that there were no life signs apart from their own and the other crewmembers back at the camp, so the Captain decided to move closer. Pine looked at him, it was obvious that something was bothering him. The structure of the ship was familiar but there was something stunningly strange about the layering and overall design, advanced technology and all, but at the same time so well-known.

Impatient as he was, he had to wait until the rest of the team arrived, which fortunately for him didn't take too much time. He eyed the hull plating suspiciously, there were heaps of ivy-like plants lying around the shape of the ship, it almost seemed as if those plants had tried to climb up but couldn't find anything to hold on to grow. This added to his impression of this ship being something strange. The hull plating was not opaque as was usual, it seemed to reflect the peculiar sunlight. Filled with sheer desire to understand the technology, he stepped closer.

Pine looked back and forth in between the team members and the ship and motioned to his engineering officers to step closer. Myers' headwound had been dressed, but he seemed to be in quite a good shape. Briefly, he met Summer's questioning glance but could not muster a smile or a longer exchange and right now, there were more urgent tasks at hand.

Yet, he was eager to figure out the mystery of this ship. "Captain, with your permission, I would like to take a look at her..."

"Of course, as do I!" The captain turned towards them all. "Team, I don't know what to make of this so I want to make sure that we use caution. We'll go in as teams of two - 30 seconds apart. Hunter and Costa, take a look around, Kuros and Pine, you two investigate Engineering. Summers, you're with me. And Daniels, you stay behind and monitor the progress out here just in case we need support."

Everybody nodded and they took off. Kuros approached the hatch of the alien ship and scanned it with his tricorder.

"It is encypted, of course." He said absently.

He reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small crystal rod and inserted into the tricorder. "This shouldn't take too long." Scanning the frequencies, he began going about discovering the encryption language and sequence. It was very similar to Federation protocols, but just different enough to make it a little more difficult than normal. With a few more commands the hatch hissed open. He replaced tricorder on his hip and drew his phaser, setting it to heavy stun.

"Shall we?" Murdock gave a slight smile.

"After you, Sir." replied the Chief Engineer. "Can't wait to find out about this beauty." He smiled lopsided.

Summer fell in behind Murdock, hand on phaser, just in case. Chris disappeared with Kuros into the dark belly of the ship, but not without looking back at Summer.


	8. Weird going on weirder

**~ Weird going on weirder ~**

With his hand light in one hand and his tricorder in another, Kuros walked with Pine towards engineering. His caution, however, was unwarranted. The ship was deserted. The only difficulty Kuros had was in keeping his tricorder in phase as the scan frequencies continued to fluctuate.

They moved about with care and reached Engineering without any incidents. The inner design and layout was a nearly exact copy of the standard Defiant-Class star ship, the distribution of decks and stations looked familiar but at the same time it was disturbingly strange. It was as if the refitting had taken place far ahead in the future where all possible flaws had been discovered and all possible detail added.

"I'll see if I can get us some light." Kuros said. At one of the engineering stations he found the secondary emergency control panel and activated the emergency lights ship-wide.

The warp core was dark. "In order to restore full power we're going to have to get the warp core back on-line. The backup systems are dead, we're running on secondary batteries only, and they're almost dead. They've been keeping the anti-matter containment unit from failing."

"Let me see to it right away." Pine answered and moved over to the main control panel. As standard in the Defiant Class the warp core was a Class-7 Matter-Antimatter Reaction Assembly, but this warp core here was made to provide a lot more power and energy than Chris could even imagine. The core siding was different, enhanced, the conduits especially formed and the reactant injectors on top of the core in their conical form were bigger than usual.

Kuros climbed a ladder and went to where a storage locker should be, but came across a bulkhead covering a plasma conduit. He looked around and finally found what he was looking for. He opened the panel and had little difficulty in locating a portable emergency power unit. Opening the access panel he found the unit fully charged.

Kuros lugged it back down the ladder. "Pine, perhaps we can use this to power up the diagnostic systems and get an idea of what we're looking at." He suggested.

"Could work, Sir, but I think we need to first figure out why the main energy was shut down in the first place. If it was really to avoid core overload, we need to be extra careful not to have nice fireworks in here..." He nodded over to the warp core. "And judging by the size of these - " he pointed towards the reactant injectors, "the fireworks we can expect if something goes wrong will be...well...impressive." He smirked. "These are designed to condition and feed streams of matter and antimatter into the warp core. Being as wide as they are here, they can provide more power and drift anyone can need. But because of that size, simply switching on power could mean disaster, there could still be some matter or worse, antimatter in the conduits...And we have no idea how long the ship's been sitting here..."

He called his Engineers that were still waiting outside. "Myers, get the team in here! Pronto!"

"Sir, I have an idea. Ensign Lane is a specialist in propulsion, he might find a way help us turn on power without having the fireworks...we must make sure that the antimatter is securely contained."

The other engineers arrived within the minute. Lane got to work right away, connecting his tricorder to the offline control panel with the help of the power unit Kuros had found to get the last status report available. He fidgeted one moment over the results, then turned to Kuros and Pine.

"Sirs, I wouldn't say it's a 100% safe to turn on the power and the possible damage won't be much, I just have to try and build up a force field to contain any escaping antimatter in the moment you turn on power. My guess is that the systems have shut down completely and instantaneously, so when we turn power back on, we'll probably find the last configurations and the problem why the power went offline in the first place."

"What about diagnostics?" Pine shouted across the room. Myers had already moved over to another console with the emergency power unit.

"Nothing here!" he replied. "The system has been secured. I'm only getting the last status report, which was to shut down all energy and cut power immediately. But it seems as if it hadn't been because of an emergency. I can't find traces of response. It had been a general command..."

Christopher inclined his head towards the Chief Intelligence Officer.

"It's highly unusual to just turn off the switch barring an emergency situation. Unless, of course, the ship was placed here for storage for some obscure reason. But with no real effort to conceal it, I find that unlikely. The other alternative is an automated shutdown sequence to conserve power for the anit-matter containment unit in the absence of a crew for an extended period of time.

"Which begs the question - where is the crew?"

Kuros examined the logs. "It certainly looks like a deliberate shutdown." He said. "And whoever did it erased the logs and covered his tracks. I'll try and recover the deleted entries."

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes Kuros worked feverishly. Finally he came up with a few answers. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing. Likely the chief engineer, op's officer, chief science officer, XO, or the captain is, or are, responsible. We're going to have to dig into the ship's and personal logs to see if we can find out why."

Kuros looked up at Pine. "If they deliberately shut this thing down and planned on returning, there is a possibility that they may have booby-trapped the system. At least that's what I'd do. If they did, it won't be easy to find. It'll be especially difficult because we're not completely familiar with their technology. I'd suggest a manual inspection of all systems."

Myers returned from having checked the main power core and attached systems. He seemed out of breath.

"Commander! There is something very important that I've discovered. The power units are divided into primary and secondary cells. Normally, the secondary power cells are used as emergency power which we are using now. But here, there is an extra unit of power cells, which is relatively unusual. The good news is, though, that I think that I can power up these secondary power systems and get them to work without triggering anything. They don't seem to be connected to the warp core or the main computer frame but would get power to some of the stations to start recovering the log files and maybe find out what was going on here..."

"Tertiary power systems...it's getting weirder by the minute..." Pine mumbled. He forced a smile. I have no idea whatsoever why they are there, but they probably can't make this ship fly. So maybe they are used to back up the main systems like life support, sensors and deflectors. But all in all, whatever they were doing with this ship, they needed a lot of energy and backup systems..."

Kuros thought about it for just a moment. "Hook it up and get the vital systems on-line, then run a full level one diagnostic on everything. I know that's going to take several hours, but we need to make sure everything is working properly."

"Then let's get on with it. I hope you're right, Ensign, because if not, we might witness the destruction of 2 ships in just one day..." he said towards Lane.

Myers frowned and turned around. He disappeared into a small compartment to reach the secondary power systems and within a few moments, the main control stations and wall panels came back to life. The whole department got lit up by the artificial glow of the halogen with reflections of the differently colored displays of the panels.


	9. Confusing Findings Part 1

**~ Confusing findings ~**

Murdock led the way towards the bridge with Williams to his side. Their lights shone on the floor and walls of the ship illuminating panels and controls along the route. The layout was similar to the Defiant model but considerable enhancements were obvious. There were a few adaptations but overall Murdock felt familiar.

"It'll be interesting to learn why this ship was abandoned here", said Murdock.

"Another interesting thing would be to know why this ship hadn't been destroyed by that strange thing that brought us down. Or why it hasn't been claimed..." Williams paused for a moment. A thought came up and was stored away.

There were no signs of life or remains of the crew. The ship was abandoned but it seemed to have been an orderly retreat as everything continued to be in its place. The ship was obviously not gutted and from the exterior walk around it did not look hulled.

"Summer, our first order of business will be to find the ships logs... if we can figure out how to operate this thing!" Murdock said with a bit of a chuckle. He was serious though. All of this looked so foreign to him that he wasn't sure what to make of most of it.

"Aye, Captain." Summer nodded and started moving around. There was not much to be done without general power but there was nothing wrong with looking for answers. She knew that there were answers here. She brushed a finger along one of the panels and examined it closely. "Whatever happened here, this ship has been out of use for only a few days. There is no dust whatsoever...Even with antistatic siding, you always get dust. Or maybe they improved the ship on that level as well...Which would be nice..." She grinned but at the same time felt the whole stupidity of that comment. It had struck her as odd that there was no dust, but mentioning it now felt much odder.

Without waiting for the Captain to reply, she turned on her heel and went on with her search. Suddenly, energy came back on, the ship started to vibrate and all controls came to life. Summer jumped back, startled, but it only took her a second to recover. Of course, Christopher had managed to get the power up. Quickly, she moved over to the security station and looked at the controls. Not everything was working, she saw the flight console dark. Quickly, she worked her way in to the working system and files.

"As far as I can see, there are no signs of emergency abandonment or engine failure in any of the last status protocols." She stated. Murdock acknowledged this with a nod. He was already trying to get to the logs.

Summer kept on searching. She browsed through the medical data and found some of the Chief Medical Officers files, some of which were classified. She wondered why. Maybe they dealt with newly discovered species or high ranking officers, but it still was strange. Then she came across a surgery report file and had a quick glance. The further she read, the bigger her eyes got. It described a theoretical medical procedure, the reconstruction of neural pathways after extensive external and internal tissue and bone damage with the help of an artificial neurocortex and nano-probes, something normally used exclusively in androids. Never had a procedure like this been performed on humans, at least not officially, normally in cases of extensive nerve damage it was reconstructed - or at least it was tried - by hyper-ultrasound stimulation and nerve transplants. The artificial neurocortex was usually rejected very violently by humans or caused severe brain damage. It just hadn't been possible to connect the human neurocortex with the artificial one without having the artificial neurocortex take over control and terminate the human one. Moving to the next file, her amazement grew with each line she read.

"Captain..." she said but trailed off. Murdock raised his head. "Captain," she said again, this time looking up from her station as well, "there are some very interesting files from the medical department. It's not only the ship that seems to be *advanced*," she pronounced that word with care, "it's also medical procedures. I found records of procedures that make it probable to have a human android, or a computing human..." she stopped herself. "Ok, now this is strange..."

"What is it?" Murdock came over.

"Take a look at the star date of the entries..." Summer moved away to let the captain have a look.

"This can't be right." Murdock said. "The data files could be corrupted." He whispered absently. "See what else you can find. I'm going to try to access the captain's logs. Hopefully that'll give us a clues as to what happened."

The captain retreated into the ready room just off the bridge. Summer was left with the findings that confused her more than she felt comfortable with. The star dates were off, terribly off, so much off that it made her head spin.

It was the year 2369 but the data she had retrieved from the systems of this strange ship stated that the vessel was from the ear 2570. That was a 200 year time difference that she just couldn't explain. She ran and re-ran the dates but got only the same result, always.

Summer continued to work on the confusing difference in time. She noticed that the captain went into the side room and when the doors closed, the silence dropped down on her like a heavy blanket. She suddenly became aware that she was on a really strange space ship and after having discovered the discrepancy in the star dates on the log files, she had a very bad feeling about this ship. But the task at hand made her steel herself and continue to revise the logs. Her feeling got stronger with each file she checked. It really seemed as if the ship was from about 200 years into the future. But there was a glitch in the timing that she just couldn't make sense of.

She pulled the crew manifest and also the available files on the medical and psychological reports and found some interesting data. Checking the service records, she saw that almost every single crew member had been born in the 26th century. This gave her the creeps. She tried to calculate, but her mind just wouldn't work. The thought of time travel had frozen every single neuron in her brain.

The ship's counsellor had stored some psychological reviews on the crew and almost every single one had something to do with the effects of time travel on the human body. Stress, psychosomatic episodes, even minor cases of schizophrenia. There were no specific protocol logs on the time travels, those were probably classified or had been deleted on purpose. She sat in front of the console and got a little lost in her own thoughts. If time travel - guided and really through time and space - was possible, then maybe, just maybe...No. She couldn't go that way. She couldn't and wouldn't even try to change the past.


	10. Confusing Findings Part 2

With power restored enough to do a little research, Murdock went into the captain's ready room. The first thing that he noticed was that it was virtually barren of personal effects. Captains usually have something in their office to make it more comfortable, even Vulcans had their family crest or IDIC symbol.

He sat behind the desk. There was no computer terminal display, just a small section of the desk dedicated to touch-screen controls. He tapped one and the window to the side of his desk went from black to clear. He could see the terrain outside of the ship and the yellow sunshine gave a warmth to the room that the white and blue lights made seem sterile.

Murdock tapped another control and a holographic display appeared on the left side of the desk.

"Computer terminal activation authorization required."

"Hmm." He didn't even know the captain's name, much less his clearance and authorization codes.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He said, then simply gave the computer his own name and authorization.

"Murdock, John. Admiral, CNC Starfleet Command. Deceased."

"Deceased? I don't think so." He said with a chuckle.

"Database confirms status."

"Voiceprint authenticiation." Murdock said, and repeated his codes.

"Murdock, John. Admiral, CNC Starfleet Command. Voiceprint authentication confirmed. Non-sequitur."

"Disregard paradox. Display ship's logs."

The last entry confirmed what Williams had discovered on the bridge. The final entries were dated 200 years in the future.

"Computer, play last log entry."

A middle aged man appeared on the display. He had dark hair with just a touch of silver on the sides, piercing blue eyes, and a strong, square jaw. His red uniform was unlike anything Murdock had ever seen, but the gold Starfleet chevron was visible on his left collar lying sideways and pointing towards the front. It had four platinum dots running along the upper inside edge.

"Ship's log, Captain Warren Hilliard recording. We managed to escape the time war, things were going very poorly. We were out-numbered and out-gunned. The Federation was on the very brink of collapse. We came to this time and grounded on Murano II to effect repairs, which took several weeks. We returned, but a few hours before the battle to try to prevent the destruction of the starbase. Although we were able to make better preparations, reinforcements were still light hours away by the time the battle had begun. We inflicted heavier casualties but were not able to save the starbase. Our regenerative shields, incredible maneuverability, and heavy weapons were all that kept us from being destroyed. The rest of the armada did not fare well and reports from all over the quadrant revealed that the Federation had fallen and Humanity was on the verge of extinction. When the battle cruisers turned their full attention towards us I ordered the Retribution to be cloaked and returned to this time and place.

In spite of the temptation to go directly to Earth with our advanced technology and provide Starfleet with the ability to make generation leaps in weapons, sensors, shields, science, and medicine, the Temporal Prime Directive prevents us from revealing ourselves to the Federation of this era. I encountered resistance from some of the crew, but military discipline remained in place and my orders will be followed.

I am ordering a complete shutdown of all systems so that no EM transmissions of any kind can be detected across the entire space-time continuum. I am reluctant to order the destruction of the Retribution; she could still come in handy one day. I'm confident that the indigenous people of this planet won't come across it, even accidently. Should we never return to it, the vegetation should overgrow and sufficiently cover it. There is a group of aboriginal humanoids many kilometers from here. We'll take what we can and assimilate ourselves into their culture. I'm sure we can explain our differences by telling them we journeyed from a far-away land, which isn't too far from the truth.

This is my final log. Captain Warren Hilliard."

Murdock sat back heavily in the chair and sighed deeply as he tried to wrap his brain around the implications of what he had discovered.

"Captain Murdock to all department heads. Please report to the bridge."


End file.
